


The Week of July 21st and What Happened After

by orphan_account



Category: Gen-Project
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-02
Updated: 2016-07-02
Packaged: 2018-07-19 16:30:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7369207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account





	The Week of July 21st and What Happened After

            Sunlight came in the room in beams of light, specks of dust dancing through the air like tiny fairies, softly flittering about, and I set down two cups of tea on the coffee table. One for me, and one for my niece. A tape recorder waited on that very table, adjacent to my armchair, and as I heard a knock on my door, I took a seat, telling the visitor that they were free to come in; I already knew who it was.

            My niece of about 16 years old came in slowly and timidly, closing the door behind her as softly as she could. I crossed my legs and told her to take a seat on the sofa across from the table, and she did, although she seemed tense and on-edge, looking around as if she had never been in the room before. She fiddled with the hem of her skirt in anticipation, and it wasn’t hard to see that she was not comfortable with the situation.

“Kielo, should I really do this? What if-“ she started to ask, but I put a hand up to silence her.

            “I know, you’re scared, but if they ever find you, we’ll have a written record of everything that happened. For your sake and mine. You don’t need to do this if you don’t want to,” I said, and she shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “I-It’s fine. I’ll do it…” she trailed off uncertainly, and while I wasn’t convinced that she was alright with me interviewing her, I nodded and mouthed an “Okay,” as I turned on the tape recorder:

 

            “I need you to start with your name. It’s only customary,” I told her, and while I could tell that she wanted to protest, she followed my instructions anyway.

            “My name is Soile Nyland. Sixteen years old,” she said, with as much confidence as I can imagine she could muster. Confidence was good. It made lies and discrepancies seem less feasible.

 

            “And what happened the night of July 21st, 20XX?” I asked, and she gulped. “It was… a car collision.” She said as she blinked, slowly recalling the events that happened. I gestured to the cup of tea in front of her, and she graciously took it with shaky hands. “Be more specific,” I told her as she took a careful sip from her cup. She needed to know how important this interview was, and if she broke down, I wasn’t sure if I was going to get a chance like this again.

            “It was my mother driving, me in the passenger’s seat, and Taavi and Vuokko- my little brother and sister- in the backseat-“ her face remained placid. “-in our family SUV. A semi swerved off it’s lane and hit us straight on, I-I don’t remember much of what happened right after, other than extreme pain, screaming, yelling, blood everywhere… I couldn’t move,” she looked down at her cup of tea as she tried to recall the incident, and I took a sip from my own cup. She had to be strong. She could do this.

            “The paramedics were talking about multiple broken bones… and a casualty, and I didn’t know who they were referring to, but the bright lights, the loss of feeling, I… I thought I was going to die…” And she paused as she felt the gravity of what she was saying, recalling what I could only imagine to be a traumatizing memory.

            “Please.” I started, “Continue.”

 

            She looked up at me with those pleading, doe eyes of hers and she looked like she was in so much emotional and mental pain, but she continued to recall her account anyways.

            “I was only out for two days, but I heard everything… every last word, the doctor- I-“ she was tearing up at this point. “It’s okay, you can skip that part.” I told her, and she wiped away her tears with her sleeve. I knew the weight of what had happened those two days alone, and while I didn’t want her to freak out, or have a mental breakdown, I hate myself for saying that I was rather disappointed that I couldn’t get her side of that whole… issue. And for her sake, I’d omit anything either of us said concerning the events of that first night… To my delight, however, she continued to speak of the events that happened after. “I-I had heard that I fractured multiple bones in my spine, the second day, and my parents had said that since I was never going to be able to walk again, that the nurses should just pull the plug on me,” she took a deep breath. “And later that evening, they did. That’s when I started to wake up, but then, it was when I found out about my power, too… and I… I’m so sorry. To the families of the nurses… I d-didn’t-“ she was going to freak out again, but she took another deep breath to settle her nerves. “-I didn’t mean for them to die. When I was taken off life support, it all happened so fast, my body reacted like a self-defense mechanism and I felt a sharp pain in my spine, and when I looked around, the two nurses were dead. They’d been in impaled, and it’s… all my f-fault…” she finished that part and I turned off the tape recorder as her hands covered her face in shame. I stood up and sat next to her, and she was shaking like crazy. I would’ve done something to comfort her, but I knew she didn’t even trust me.

            “It’s not too late to stop this,” I told her, but I knew that if we ended this now, she wouldn’t want to continue it again later. She was too skittish and I didn’t want her to relive those memories more than she needed to.

            “I-It’s a-alright,” she sobbed, and I grabbed a tissue so that I could clean up her sniffling face. “Look at me, Soile.” I told her, and she moved her hands away from her face as she glanced up at me. I started wiping the tears away from her face, and while she was still crying, I decided I would give her a minute to recompose herself. I told her to go to the bathroom and splash water on her face, and she got up and walked out immediately.

            I knew this was going to happen. I didn’t think she was ready to talk about this, but she said she’d be alright. I stood up, tossed the tissue in the garbage bin, and took a look outside the window. It was a bright and sunny day, very contrasting to the dark and heavy mood of the room, and I was almost tempted to close the curtains so the sunlight wasn’t taunting me anymore, but I decided to leave them open because bright light was better than none, especially when Soile was in a state like this.

           

            A half hour passed, and I wasn’t sure if Soile was coming back. I was about to close the curtains and call it a day when I heard another knock on my door. I told them to come in, and when I turned back around, I saw that she’d returned. She wasn’t crying anymore, and her face was placid again. “Are you ready to continue?” I asked, and she nodded as she took a seat again. I sat back down in my armchair and turned the tape recorder back on.

            “So tell me, what happened after you woke up?”

            “I didn’t know what to do. My mind was blank, and I heard footsteps running down the hall, I could only assume the nurses screamed when they… died. I looked out my window, seeing it was still night time, and I jumped out the second story window.”

I nodded, and while I already knew what happened, I asked “And you could walk? You mentioned before that your body was paralyzed, and yet you jumped out the window,” I pointed out the discrepancy in her statement, and she looked around skittishly. “See… I didn’t know how, but my bones healed while I was asleep, and I could move. I know now that it was because of my powers, but I didn’t then, and my heart was racing and my thoughts were scattered and I just ran home as fast as I could.” She paused a moment, recollecting herself. “My town was very small, it didn’t take very long for me to find my way home. My parents… they were happy to see me, but as soon as I saw their faces, full of confused, intense emotions, I passed out again. I had been running as fast as I could, and I guess I tired myself out…” she seemed hesitant to speak, and I wasn’t surprised. I looked out the window again at the daring sunlight, and looked back at her as she spoke again.

“I woke up again in the early morning, it felt like any other day. I woke up in my bed, I got up, half asleep, poured cereal. The usual routine, but I could feel something was off. The house was so… quiet. I heard sobbing in the other room, and as I went to investigate, it was my mom that was crying, and it looked like she hadn’t slept in days. I told her ‘good morning’ to get her attention, and I had never seen her head whip around so fast. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her hair was a mess. I hadn’t noticed it when I came home, but I’d never seen my mother look like such a wreck before.” She stopped speaking and cast her eyes downward. “…She t-told me that Taavi and Vuokko died in the accident, and I think that was the first time I really, really cried,” she admitted.

“What happened next?”

            “My parents told me that certain people were looking for me, and that I had to leave. That’s when my aunt-“ she glanced up at me, “-came to pick me up. I didn’t know where we were going, or why I couldn’t keep in touch with my parents, but I was told it was for the best.”

            I nodded. “What happened once you left?” I asked, then.

 

            “We travelled far, always moving around once we had been in a place for too long. We did that for a few months, and now we’re here. D.C. I don’t know for how long though…” she said, and I was glad that we were finally able to hold this interview without her freaking out again.

            “What’s the date, Soile?”

            “September 26th.”

            “How long has it been since you’ve seen your parents?”

            “Over a year already. They haven’t even written.”

 

            I turned off the tape recorder. “That was good, Soile, thank you.”

 

            She shrugged. “It was no problem. I saw a letter of employment from New York. Is that where we’re going next?” she asked, uncertainty and fear in her eyes. I knew she didn’t like the city, and if things went as planned, we’d be in the biggest city in the country, and I can’t imagine she’d be very excited.

            “Possibly. I already enrolled you in one of the schools. Our home is going to be a bit downsized, though. You start school in October.” I told her, and she sighed. I stood up and made my way towards the window again, the stained glass still drowning the room in warm sunlight. “I don’t want to go,” she whispered, sadness in her voice, we’d moved around so much this past year, she didn’t make any friends, she rarely left the house, she was a wreck. But the big city of Manhattan would be good for her. She could meet people, and it’d be easier to hide and blend in.

           

            A gunshot is what snapped me out of my reverie, and the bullet just barely missed my right ear. So much for staying another week.

 

            “Soile, we leave _now._ ”


End file.
